A travelling wave has two components of energy: a vertical component and a horizontal component. The device set forth herein utilizes the vertical component.
Several prior U.S. Patents have attempted to utilize the horizontal component of energy in waves. Two of the early patents Matthews U.S. Pat. Nos. 965,208 and Bates 1,039,081 used the horizontal component directly. In the Matthews Patent the wave surges up a tube and drives an air compressing piston. In the Bates Patent a large circular head confronts the wave directly, whereby the horizontal energy of the waves pushes the head and the air compressing piston forward.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 755,728 Weems and Tuch 1,267,936 use funnel-like mouths to collect the horizontal and vertical components of energy of incoming waves. In the Weems patent, a wave enters a funnel-like mouth, goes to the end of a tube and then forces a series of air compression pistons to move forward. In the Tuch Patent the wave is captured through the funnel-like mouth and pushes a piston forward compressing air. Unlike the disclosure set forth herein, the size of the piston is of one continous size, there is no large float which can add to the pressure exerted by the piston. Also, all of the patents which utilize horizontal components of wave energy must be constructed to withstand the strength of incoming waves pounding their structures. In the present structure, only the vertical component is used and the structure does not take the pounding that is found with those structures using the horizontal components of a wave.
In the Van Gils U.S. Pat. No. 3,271,959 the difference in hydrostatic pressure of a wave crest and wave trough is utilized to circulate water and run a turbine.
The present disclosure differs from the above patents in that the vertical swell component of a wave is used exclusively. A float in a compression chamber is used to compress the air.